These are my thoughts on Lyme disease treatment. I'm using my own body to figure this out. I'd love to hear from others about what they do when they are bitten by a deer tick.
I've been told by a lyme specialist that I am one of the "lucky ones". My body has a very strong initial reaction to tick bites - they itch, boy oh boy do they itch. It's an itch like no other, so lucky me, I don't have to see the tick to know that I've been bitten by one.
Infected or not, the bites drive me nuts at first, and I go on the lookout for a rash. Just so you all know, that bulls eye rash you're told is a symptom? I get those too alright, another lucky-me symptom, but they only last for a couple hours, if that. They are very easy to miss, even if you are keeping a close eye on the bite. On lucky ole me, those bulls eye rashes then turn to a solid oval-shaped and deep red rashes, still itchy, with unique scabs near the center. There is again no denying that I was bitten by a tick, but now I can be sure without even a blood test that it injected spirochetes of some type into me.
Soon after being bitten, I put a mixture of oregano essential oil and colloidal silver on the site. That has so far always been the end of lyme symptoms for me. If I get it on there right away I do not develop a rash at all, and if I start putting it on when the rash shows up, the rash is the last symptom I see. This leads me to believe that treating the site immediately would go a looooong way toward stopping the disease. Thoughts?
I don't know why I didn't use my mixture this time but I completely ignored several bites on my thighs earlier this year, and the disease for the first time ever progressed beyond the rash. I developed PAIN in every part of my body that had ever been injured before. An hours-long debilitating exhaustion made an appearance late afternoon every day for a few days, and before bed the pain was so severe I could barely walk. Oh lucky me, I knew what it all meant.
This is when I called a lyme specialist and tried to make an appointment, but the doctor and I had a long phone conversation instead. First we discussed my symptoms and she said "yup that's Lyme" a few times. She suggested I get my primary care doctor to prescribe doxycycline for three weeks or something absurd that I knew I would not do. I won't take doxycycline; I have seen what it does to people. She said amoxicillin would be OK too, but doxy covers a broader range of infections. I thanked her very very much for all this FREE medical information.
I don't know why I ignored her advice but, lucky me again, I did. The symptoms completely cleared up in a few days and any urgency on my part to treat myself for Lyme withered.
Here's where the story gets interesting. I called the Lyme doctor back, confessed that I had done nothing but the symptoms had cleared up, and to my astonishment she said "If the symptoms have cleared up, do nothing." Shiver me timbers what is this I am hearing from a western doctor?! If you feel OK, you are OK?! Music to my ears.
So apparently this is the new strategy for Lyme - let your body handle it if it can. WHAT?! A western doctor who respects the body's power to heal itself?! The good doctor then suggested I get a course of amoxicillin to have on hand in case any symptoms do reappear, and in that event I am to take it only until the symptoms disappear! More new thinking from the west! Don't take an antibiotic until the antibiotic is gone, take it only until the symptoms are gone!
I believe all symptoms, especially fever and pain, are our bodies speaking to us by alerting us to illnesses and reassuring us that our immune systems are on the job. The good doctor went on to say essentially the same thing - if you have been bitten by a tick and have strong immediate reactions you are one of the lucky ones like me. Your body IS handling it and, if the symptoms disappear entirely, your body has won.
I would love to hear what you guys think of all this. What do you do when bitten? What would you do in my case? What do you think about this doctor's advice? Why do you think some of us are lucky and some of us not?
This is an entry to @naturalmedicine's discussion
@naturalmedicine/do-you-have-a-natural-medicine-story-to-tell-come-closer-we-re-listening
Please come tell us one of your stories! And thank you for reading mine.
The image is of the clump of Japanese Knotweed out my front door. There is a LOT of it around here, just as there is a LOT of Lyme disease. The herbalists tell us that medicinal plants come to where they are needed. Knotweed is said to be an effective treatment for Lyme disease. I think it is beautiful, offers great food and cover for birds, houses a lot of wildlife, and suspect it to be very valuable to humans as medicine.